Re^2: Empty File Contents before writing

Yes, seek works in this case because the final output is longer than the initial output. But a word of caution is in order. Consider:

#! perl
use strict;
use warnings;

my $filename = 'test.txt';
open(my $fh, '>', $filename) or die "Cannot open file '$filename' for 
+writing: $!";
print $fh "The quick brown fox jumped over the unfortunate dog.";
seek $fh, 0, 0;
print $fh "The final output.";
close($fh) or die "Cannot close file '$filename': $!";
[download]

This results in file “test.txt” containing:

The final output.ox jumped over the unfortunate dog.
[download]

as seeking to the beginning of the file does not erase its existing contents.

Athanasius <°(((>< contra mundum Iustus alius egestas vitae, eros Piratica,

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Re^3: Empty File Contents before writing by gautamparimoo (Beadle) on Feb 19, 2013 at 09:47 UTC
So I will have to open and close the file agin in order to completely truncate watever is written in previous write attempts?	[reply]
Re^4: Empty File Contents before writing by johngg (Canon) on Feb 19, 2013 at 10:04 UTC
There is also a built-in function called truncate that will do what you want. `$ perl -Mstrict -Mwarnings -e ' > open my $fh, q{>}, q{rubbish} or die $!; > print $fh qq{A longish line of text\n}; > truncate $fh, 0 or die $!; > print $fh qq{Short\n}; > close $fh or die $!;' $ cat rubbish Short $` [download] Update: Added example code. Cheers, JohnGG	[reply] [d/l]
Re^5: Empty File Contents before writing by RichardK (Parson) on Feb 19, 2013 at 11:41 UTC
The help for truncate says `The position in the file of FILEHANDLE is left unchanged. You may want + to call seek before writing to the file.` [download] So, any ideas why your code works without needing a seek 0?	[reply] [d/l]
Re^6: Empty File Contents before writing by johngg (Canon) on Feb 19, 2013 at 14:37 UTC
Re^3: Empty File Contents before writing by locked_user sundialsvc4 (Abbot) on Feb 19, 2013 at 13:56 UTC
Yeah, gotta watch out for those output-oxen. `;-)`
Re^4: Empty File Contents before writing by gautamparimoo (Beadle) on Feb 20, 2013 at 05:43 UTC
So I need to open and close my file every time I print something to it so that it overwrites the previous print in the file?? Is there any other way coz I would have open and close the file numerous times.	[reply]
Re^5: Empty File Contents before writing by johngg (Canon) on Feb 20, 2013 at 23:17 UTC
No, you can use truncate and seek and if you put them together in a subroutine you only have to make one call each time to empty your file ready for the next print statement. Note that /usr/bin/hexdump run on an empty file produces no output. $ perl -Mstrict -Mwarnings -e ' > sub truncZero > { > my $fh = shift; > truncate $fh, 0 or die $!; > seek $fh, 0, 0 or die $!; > } > > open my $fh, q{>}, q{rubbish} or die $!; > > print $fh qq{Mary had a little lamb\n}; > print qx{/usr/bin/hexdump -vC rubbish}, qq{-----\n}; > > truncZero( $fh ); > print qx{/usr/bin/hexdump -vC rubbish}, qq{-----\n}; > > print $fh qq{The boy stood on the burning deck\n}; > print qx{/usr/bin/hexdump -vC rubbish}, qq{-----\n}; > > truncZero( $fh ); > print qx{/usr/bin/hexdump -vC rubbish}, qq{-----\n}; > > print $fh qq{I met a traveller from an antique land\n}; > print qx{/usr/bin/hexdump -vC rubbish}, qq{-----\n}; > > close $fh or die $!;' 00000000 4d 61 72 79 20 68 61 64 20 61 20 6c 69 74 74 6c \|Mary had +a littl\| 00000010 65 20 6c 61 6d 62 0a \|e lamb.\| 00000017 ----- ----- 00000000 54 68 65 20 62 6f 79 20 73 74 6f 6f 64 20 6f 6e \|The boy s +tood on\| 00000010 20 74 68 65 20 62 75 72 6e 69 6e 67 20 64 65 63 \| the burn +ing dec\| 00000020 6b 0a \|k.\| 00000022 ----- ----- 00000000 49 20 6d 65 74 20 61 20 74 72 61 76 65 6c 6c 65 \|I met a t +ravelle\| 00000010 72 20 66 72 6f 6d 20 61 6e 20 61 6e 74 69 71 75 \|r from an + antiqu\| 00000020 65 20 6c 61 6e 64 0a \|e land.\| 00000027 ----- $ cat rubbish I met a traveller from an antique land $ [download] I hope this is helpful. Cheers, JohnGG	[reply] [d/l]